“Yes, there are four of them standing right here. I’m twenty yards from the box.”

“Please bring them here now. And find out who is the senior agent.”

“On the way.”

Mike appeared with a man beside him, followed by two other men and one woman. “This is Special Agent Foster,” Mike said. Stone shook the man’s hand, held on to it and leaned in close. “Your boss, Agent Beam, is alone in the box with no other agents and behaving like a threat.” Stone handed him Beam’s silenced pistol. “I took this from him.”

The agent looked at the pistol and his eyebrows shot up. “That is a non-standard weapon,” he said.

“The NYPD chief of detectives is just inside the door. Beam is handcuffed with his own cuffs. I’ll bring him out, and you should take him away quietly and leave two agents inside the box. We don’t know if this is only a one-man threat.” The agent nodded. Stone opened the door and motioned Dino outside. Agent Foster was speaking with his fellow agents. Two of them took away Beam, who was now in tears, and Foster and the female agent followed Stone and Dino into the box and stood by the door as they took their seats again.

Hattie was halfway through Rhapsody in Blue, and Stone tried to enjoy it as his eyes raked the audience for further threats.

Chapter 26

Hattie finished her performance, then Immi Gotham took the stage and sang her way through a repertoire of Gershwin, Rodgers and Hart, Jerome Kern, and Irving Berlin. The audience was transported—and Stone would have been, too, but he was still in his most watchful mode. However, by the concert’s rousing finish, no threat had appeared.

Everyone rose in a standing ovation, and Hattie, Immi, and the conductor took their bows. Stone’s guests in the box had begun making their way toward the outside door and the waiting tram when the president fell in beside him.

“What was all that about with Agent Beam?” he asked.

“You’ll be getting a new agent in charge of your detail,” Stone replied. “It appears that the threat Beam warned us about emanated directly from Beam himself. He’s in custody now, and I’m sure the detail is being reorganized as we speak.”

“Nothing like this has happened during my two terms of office,” Will said.

“And I expect nothing like it will happen again,” Stone said.

“Do you think Beam has collaborators?”

“I’m sure that will be thoroughly investigated, but my own opinion is that he does not. His behavior was very much that of a lone wolf, and deranged people don’t easily attract collaborators.”

“I hope you’re right,” Will said.